Author Archives: Bernie

Free Motion Mavericks-Guest Host!

This week Needle and Foot is hosting the Free Motion Maverick weekly link up. Muv, the regular hostess over at Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing, is busy with family commitments this week. I am happy to host for her.

I regularly check out this linky party each Thursday, linking up whenever I have a FMQ project to share. As you have read, I am trying to practice my FMQ consistently so I can steadily improve the quality of my stitching. Each week, the Free Motion Maverick link up provides me with lots of inspiration and encouragement on my free motion quilting.

Last week I jumped on board with the mystery FMQ QAL over at The Inbox Jaunt. I have used the resources that Lori Kenedy provides on her blog so many times. Her endless stream of tutorials are so helpful. She just started a QAL where we will make a whole cloth mini using a solid color fabric. The frist step was to make the quilt sandwich and mark out the sections. She is assigning a section each Tuesday and there is to be a nautical theme to this project. It is definitely not too late to join in. We are just getting going!

Last week we quilted two rows (top and bottom) of the piece with a loopy stitch. I am using Sulky thread for the top and Aurifil in the bobbin. So far, so good.

Even though Lori had us run a stitch around the perimeter, I feel like I have to at least place a few pins. It is a small piece though, the pins are probably overkill. This week we did scallops on two rows. I doodled them on paper and stitched on a practice piece before going to the real deal. They look ok. Not great, just ok.

I am looking forward to seeing what is next! Doing such a tiny amount each week makes this easy to fit in with everything else.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has been working on this week. Last week, this quilt by Afton Warrick was linked up. The quilting on her piece is outstanding.

Afton calls this quilt “Small Wonders Kaleidescope”. It is a beautiful quilt. If you didn’t get the chance last week, take a peek at her post. She does a great job of stepping the reader through the process she used to quilt it. Quite inspirational.

Now let’s see what you are stitching! Link up here, whether you are a FMQ pro, or a novice, like myself.

An InLinkz Link-up

RSC16 – Orange

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I have finished up my monthly scrap challenge projects. April was declared as the orange month. Angela, of So Scrappy, suggested including accents of black; like a Monarch butterfly. While this is a nice idea, it didn’t work for any of my projects. Plus, orange and black makes me think of Halloween, which just doesn’t feel right in April.

I made my improv HST’s and I love them! I am totally enjoying the process of piecing all of these scraps together and slicing them right back up again into half square triangles. I have the HST’s sized at 9 inches right now.

Half square triangles can be arranged in an endless number of ways.

Each arrangement brings an entirely different look to the project.

Just changing the perspective on this arrangement (setting the blocks on point) changes the look.

All of those gray dotted blocks would provide great negative space to quilt! Even with all of these choices, I am debating cutting them again to make quarter square triangles. I haven’t decided yet but I think I may want to have the blocks a bit smaller than nine inches. With quarter scale triangles, I could do an hourglass pattern or a ribbon pattern (some call it a DNA quilt pattern.) So many ways to do this! I will wait until I get a few more months done and then maybe it will make itself known to me, as these things often do.

For the Gemstones quilt, I took a suggestion from Cynthia Brunz and used rust colors instead of brighter orange tones. The suggestion was absolute genius. These blocks call out Topaz, or Tiger’s Eye, and what is better for a quilt called Gemstones?

I will confess that I had to go buy a few fat quarters to be able to use this colorway. I only had a few in my stash. Aren’t they gorgeous though?

I added the green sashing strip to one side of each block so I could see what that framework would look like. It’s perfect! At this point, I have made blocks to represent Amethyst, Topaz, Sapphire, and Rose Quartz. I still need to make blocks in Ruby Red and Emerald Green. What other gems need to be included? Maybe a lighter green for Peridot?

Finally, I used the last of the orange patchwork squares to make a little hot pad. I will pop this in the mail to my sister who seems to have a thing for orange right now.

I used two layers of Insul Bright for insulation which makes it a bit stiff to handle. I found it was challenging to bind. Or maybe I just didn’t pay close enough attention? I machine stitched it to the front and back and it only looks ok. Should be alright since this will end up in a kitchen drawer and not under anyone’s close inspection!

Scrappy projects for April are complete! This week I will continue to work on the Stepping Stones QAL. I was very happy to see (on Instagram) that Sandra over at Musings of a Menopaulsal Melon (probably the best blog name out there) joined in. She is making a great quilt using a neutral palette. In addition, I am working on a mystery QAL over at The Inbox Jaunt. More on that later this week. Finally, I will be hosting Free Motion Mavericks for Muv this week. I hope you will come back on Thursday and link up your FMQ projects!!

As always, I am linking this post up with all of my favorite spots. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Square Dance

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This week I finished up Square Dance. It was well over a year ago that I started this quilt. For some reason, it was put aside and ignored for a long while. Now that it is done, I am really pleased with the cheerful colors. The pattern is a simple one based on squares of two different sizes and simple borders on each, bringing the blocks to 9″ when finished.

Putting the quilt together was a breeze. Quilting it, on the other hand, was not. Back in March, I was reading Cynthia’s posts over at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. She showed some quilts that she had finished up using some oversized daisy flowers. I loved it and thought it would be great for this quilt. I planned to put a flower in the center of each block. Additionally, I placed one on the intersection of each set of blocks.

My machine was most uncooperative and I stitched about 1/4 of the quilt before I realized that my bobbin tension was way off and I had to unpick all of that quilting. Ugh. Not my favorite task. There really wasn’t a choice though. On the bright side, the tension was so far off that the stitches were totally loose on the back side and came out easily. These frustrations were resolved when I found the Magic Bobbin Genies that I recently posted about. The small washers helped a great deal. I have had these issues sporadically and I am hoping this resolution works out over the long haul.

I requilted (is that a word?) the first section and finished up the rest. I think it is very cute – though it looks much better on the front than the back. I pieced the backing as I was determined to used some stash up. I love the way the backing came together but backing a quilt in solids means that every FMQ wiggle is accentuated. That’s ok. I am making progress with each project. For now, I am just going to look at the front side!

The colors are great, as is the motif I chose for quilting Square Dance. Finally, look at the binding. It is adorable. I found this red and yellow print on a sale table at Ben Franklin and it was a steal.

Tomorrow I will wash it and enjoy that cozy crinkle that the quilt will have once it is out of the dryer. Earlier this year, I signed up to participate in Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge organized by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. When I signed up, I wasn’t entirely sure what I would donate but I think this quilt will bring comfort to it’s recipient.

Update: I shipped this quilt off to Kat for her Covered in Love program and she let me know it had arrived. I hope it will be used by someone in the near future.

The timing of this finish is good as I am now in the process of piecing my black and white Stepping Stones quilt. There is black and white flying all over in my sewing room these days. The blocks are looking really good though. I am pretty excited about this one!

Linking to all sorts of sites. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups!

Projects, Projects, Projects

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I am currently working on lots of different projects. I don’t normally do this but I am enjoying it. It allows me to enjoy bits of the process, depending on what I am in the mood for (piecing, trimming, stitching etc.)

I have been hand stitching the binding on my Square Dance quilt. I found a cute red and yellow print on a sale table that works well with this pallette. Picking this up in the evenings and stitching a bit is perfect. I brought it up to Downieville over the weekend for some hand sewing but only worked on it for a short while. I should have it finished up by the end of the week.

Knowing that we were going to be up at the house in DV, I made a little curtain. In our bedroom, there is a door leading to a tiny room which will someday be a sewing room. For now, it is where Ray keeps his tools and supplies for all of the work he is doing on the house. But someday…. it will be a perfect place to sew. This door has a window that I wanted to cover for privacy. The sewing room has windows that one can look through to the bedroom. I used a great piece of Tula Pink in gray and blue. I took the photo at a weird angle because the sun was coming through and when I took it straight on, the colors were way off.

Now that April is here, there is a new color for RSC16, orange. Not at all my favorite color, I was surprised to see how many scraps I had to work with. Last night I worked on “making” fabric (as discussed in “15 Minutes of Play” by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.) It is coming together well. I had a patchwork block left over from RSC14’s quilt so I unpicked some seams and used bits of patchwork for the new blocks.

These colors will add a huge pop to my scrappy HST quilt. I won’t use them for the Gemstones quilt though. After a little back and forth with Cynthia Brunz, she suggested swapping out orange for a deeper rust (think of Topaz gems). I love this idea but don’t have enough choices in my stash. I will pick up a few FQ’s for this.

Finally, I made huge progress on the Stepping Stones QAL that I am doing with Jennifer over at Inquiring Quilter. Participating in the QAL has been the perfect way to keep me on task. After many years of working to a deadline (which is so common in the HR world) I am finding that having the deadline is really helpful to me. I have pieced the 143 HST’s needed. I also cut some extra charms. After counting what I had, I came up slightly short. Take a look at these black and white FQ’s that I picked up to supplement my charm squares with.

I love all of these! The fabric at the top is a Tula Pink which I found interesting – I don’t think she uses black and white very often. It is gorgeous though.

2016 Advice and Tech Helpfor New Quilt Bloggers

Finally, I want to let you know that signups are open for the 2016 New Quilt Blogger session with Quilting Jetgirl, Late Night Quilter and Meadow Mist Designs. I participated in this activity last year. If you are relatively new to the quilt blogging world, I highly recommend participating. It was a valuable experience offering tips and techniques that taught me so much. Working with a large (we had about 70) group of bloggers, I became acquainted with many new bloggers. Opportunities were available which helped to push me to learn and grow (such as the block hops sponsored by Paint Brush Fabrics.) Be sure to check out the information at any of the three websites I have linked to and see what if this is right for you. If you have questions, leave them in the comments. Here are the criteria for participating in this event.

If you have been blogging mainly about modern quilting (modern quilting to you is modern quilting to us.),
for less than 2 years,
writing at least 4 posts a month,
are willing to agree to be actively involved in the blog hop through visiting and commenting on the other blogger’s hop posts,
and have or are willing to open a Facebook account to participate in the group discussions.

**If you are interested, sign up here!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week. Springtime is certainly long in coming to the east coast but we are in full swing on the west. My lilacs are fully blooming. I tried to cut some for inside the house but the fragrance was powerful and I couldn’t leave them. We were all sneezing after just a short while!

Linking to lots of fun places. Check out the links at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Sweet Pixie Baskets

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Hi: This year Easter was at my house. We celebrated with my husband’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, their two girls plus two more family members. It was such a lovely day. Lots of good food, pretty weather and visiting with family.

I decided to make Easter gifts for the women that were coming (five in all). Have you seen all the pixie baskets floating around on Instagram? The tutorial is by Heidi over at Fabric Mutt. It is a simple project and it took very little time to make five.

I love the little accents such as the border around the top and the little tabs on each end.

I did make a few changes. When I made the first one, I happened to make cookies the same day. Because Ray doesn’t tolerate dairy products well, I often use butter flavored Crisco when making cookies. In case you don’t use it, the cubes of shortening come in these little plastic tubs. They are nearly the same size as the pixie baskets. I thought it would be nice to place the tub in the finished basket to give it a better shape.

Heidi’s tutorial instructs you to cut pieces to a length of 8″ when making the baskets. In order to use the little plastic inserts, I had to increase the length to 8.5″. These little inserts create wonderful structure for the pixie baskets. I used fusible batting which was a breeze. Finally, I topstitched 1/8″ above and below the seam connecting the main exterior fabric and the upper trim piece. It was a nice finishing touch.

These were so fun to make and fill up for my guests. I think they were well received too!

I could see using these for all sorts of things. Different holidays, Christmas, teacher gifts, etc would be great times to make these. You can see the red one in the back is made from American Jane scraps with the alphabet on it. My sister-in-law teaches kindergarten and I thought this would be fun for her desk.

Lots of sewing going on these days. Just finished the quilting on the Square Dance quilt. Time to trim it and square it up. Then I will get the binding done.

Have a nice weekend all!

Linking to my favorites – check out the list at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Giveaway Winner & a Tip From a Genie

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Good morning! I want to announce the winner of the giveaway sponsored by Brewstitched! Drawn by Random Number Generator, the winner is 24, Tami from Sew Much for Free Time! Thanks to all who entered! If you didn’t win today, remember that you can still have 10% off of your order through the end of tomorrow by using coupon code NANDFMARCLUB10!

Here is my tip! I have been working on quilting my Square Dance quilt for the past week or so. My machine has been giving me all sorts of grief, not the least of which is eyelashing on the back side. It has been really frustrating. Consulting the wizard of all things, Google, I have read a fair amount on technique and the speed of one’s hand movements related to the speed of the needle. I also came across quilters who touted these Magic Bobbin Genies. These are small washers made of teflon that are dropped into the bobbin holder, underneath the bobbin. I gave them a try and they are very helpful. It didn’t solve the problem 100% but certainly improved the stitching by quite a bit.

I am not totally sure why these work. My best guess is the washer provides a slick surface on which the bobbin can spin. This is not an affiliate post, I am just spreading the word in case it might be helpful to you. They come in packs of 12 which seems to be a lifetime supply! I am not sure how long they last but it seems like there isn’t much wear and tear on the little discs. I didn’t pay close attention when I ordered and ended up with Size L. The package says they are for machines with snap-in bobbin cases. I have a Janome and my bobbin drops in. At any rate, the washer fits perfectly and definitely improves the quality of my stitching.

Now that I am nearly done qulting my Square Dance quilt, it seems a good time to begin something new. Seems like I haven’t started a new quilt for a while now. Several weeks ago I was perusing blogs and came across a quilt along that was sorting soon. I have never followed along with a QAL and it sounded like fun. I liked the pattern (called Stepping Stones) and thought it might be fun to meet more of the online quilty community. Jennifer, over at The Inquiring Quilter, is hosting the QAL. It is definitely not too late to join if you are interested. Other than the social aspect of making the quilt with a group of quilters that are working from the same pattern, there is the benefit of having a schedule to work to each week. I am really enjoying seeing the fabric choices that the others are using for their quilt. As for mine, I have had a collection of black and white charms in my stash for a while now. I didn’t have quite enough for the project so I found more on Etsy. The charms will be bordered with 1 1/2″ strips. If ever there was a time for pre-cuts, it is this quilt. I found a honey bun in royal blue at Missouri Star Quilt Co. This was my first order from Missouri Star and I smiled when I read their shipping notice. Someone over there is a very creative writer! I also smiled when I was ordering my blue strips and I saw their Daily Deal with a package of Kaffe Fassett charms for $2.00. Score. And so my stash continues to grow, bit by 5″ bit.

Time to sew. I have been neglecting my Etsy shop and need to make a few new Chemex cozies today. I also need to work on about a billion little HST’s for the quilt along. Hope you will carve out a few minutes to sew as well.

Linking up all over the place. Check the tab, Link Ups, at the top of the page for details!

Tutorial Intermingled

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Today marks the first day of the Paintbrush Studio 2016 New Block Blog Hop! Last year I participated in a block hop that was sponsored by Fabri-Quilt. This year I am participating again, except Fabri-Quilt is now known as Paintbrush Studios. The fabric company has provided each of the participants with a set of fat quarters and we created a unique block using their curated bundle of gorgeousness, Painters Pallette. This three day event is led by Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs, and Stephanie @Late Night Quilter.

Each participant is to make a block which finishes out to 12″ square (12.5″ unfinished). The blocks are sent to the team lead, Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl, who will then assemble them into at least two donation quilts. The fabrics this year are exceptional. Wonderful colors and the hand of the fabric is lovely. I did prewash mine to prevent any issues with potential bleeding from the darker colors. However my color catcher came up clean and there wasn’t any color issue.

To create my block, Intermingled, I took inspiration from Alissa Carlton’s book, Modern Minimal. I love this book – the quilts are modern with clean lines and are uncomplicated. My kind of projects! She has a quilt in this book which served as inspiration for my block. I emailed Alissa and checked to see if I could replicate her quilt as a block. She was so kind as to reply right away (this was a few days before QuiltCon and I was amazed that she answered so fast!) I am not always sure of the etiquette so I think it never hurts to go the extra mile and ask for permission. Anyway, Alissa created this design as a bed size quilt and I reduced it to block size (with a few additional modifications.)

While this block does require a fair amount of piecing, it is not difficult to create. There are no points to match up and it comes together quickly.

I have attached a full PDF document that contains the cut list for the size of each piece, as well as assembly directions. For the purpose of this post, however, I will show basic pictures of how the block goes together.

I made this block in three sections. The first section is the left side of the block.

These pieces are stitched to form the first panel. The middle section of the block looks like this:

It only takes two quick seams to assemble the middle panel. The third panel requires some piecing. Here is the upper portion of the third panel.

Here is the lower portion.

Once each panel is assembled, it looks like something like this. At this point, the sections of the third panel need to be stitched together.

Once each panel is complete, they are joined together along the length. Here is the finished block.

Placing these blocks side by side in a quilt might look like this:

Download the instructions and cut list for Intermingled here – Intermingled Tutorial

There are over 35 block tutorials that will be posted during this blog hop. Wouldn’t a modern sampler quilt with a dozen of your favorite blocks be a great project? Today’s hop includes the following quilters. Be sure to take a look – these talented quilters are sure to inspire you!

Host: Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl

Jess @Quilty Habit

Silvia @A Stranger View

Cristy @Love You Sew

Kelly @Quilting It Out

Renee @Quilts of a Feather

Bernie @Needle and Foot You’re Here!

Terri Ann @Childlike Fascination

Chelsea @Patch the Giraffe

Mary @Quilting is in my Blood

Diana @Red Delicious Life

Sarah @123 Quilt

Linking up with my usual favorites. Links are available at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

By the way, have you entered my giveaway yet? If not, today is the last day. Check it out here!!

Whisper – Giveaway!

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Have you all been looking for little signs of the arrival of spring? Living in California, spring is noticeable early on. My daffodils are done blooming and our fruit trees are leafing out, with all of their blossoms raining down. It is definitely spring here.

Another sign of spring is the gorgeous Windham Fabrics collection, Whisper, which was recently released and is now shipping at Brewstitched. I love the gorgeous pallette used in this line. Soft, muted shades of blue, pink, and mustard yellow are used in this springtime collection. The fabric features various florals and sweet butterflies for a truly feminine feel. Sheryl, the owner of Brewstitched, would like to give four fat quarters to a lucky reader!

For those of you living in cold weather country, this is the perfect way to bring a bit of spring to your sewing room!

Sheryl sent me a few fat quarters of Whisper to play with. I immediately thought of our Downieville house. It could certainly use something cute hanging on the walls.

The pattern for this mini is one that I downloaded last winter during the Aurifil Designer Mini series. It was designed by Kim Jolly over at The Fat Quarter Shop. It’s been on my list to make for a while now and this was just the right opportunity. I added a scrap of bright yellow to make the center pop a bit.

One of the reasons I wanted to make a simple project was to practice some hand quilting. I have some spools of Pearle cotton floss that I have been itching to use.

I ditch quilted in several of the seams so that I wouldn’t have to worry about things slipping around as I hand quilted. Adding a bit of hand stitching makes just about anything look that much sweeter.

Stitching with Pearle Cotton was a treat. I will definitely keep practicing to increase the consistency of my stitching.

OK – Back to the Whisper giveaway! In order to enter, please take a peek over at Brewstitched. Sheryl has recently added some wonderful new fabrics to her shop. She is carrying the entire line of Whisper and I happened to notice she now has several pieces of the crazy popular Cotton and Steel line, Bluebird. So hop over and then come back and tell me about your favorite. Spring is here and it is blissfully evident over at Brewstitched!

If you follow me, you are welcome to comment a second time telling me how you follow. Are you following Brewstitched on Facebook or Instagram? If so, that is worth a third entry. Be sure to let me know how you follow them.

This giveaway is open through March 29th. The winner will be announced first thing, March 30th! Make sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger. In the event that someone is picked and I cannot email them, I will draw another winner. Due to the cost of shipping, this giveaway is open to US residents only. Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Remember that Needle and Foot readers have a discount this month over at Brewstitched. Enter coupon code NANDFMARCLUB10 for 10% off your order through the end of March!

Linking to my usual parties – all links are listed at the top of the page under Link Ups.

It’s Our Special Day!

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Because it just isn’t enough that we celebrate quilting on a daily basis with our online community, we honor it today with National Quilting Day! I hope you are finding a few minutes to sew or, at the very least, take some time to curl up with a quilt today!

Perfection? No Thanks.

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I did a little practice session (actually it took a few sessions) of free motion quilting. It’s been a while since I last sat down and focused on it. Really, when it is truly a practice session and I don’t have a lot invested in the outcome, it is very fun. FMQ is a skill (like most) that will never improve unless one invests the time.

My main issue is the whole look-at-every-wiggle obsession that I have. I have heard it so many times; when we sit at the machine to quilt, our line of sight is up close and personal. The finished product is usually viewed from a distance which improves the look of things tremendously. As I played with this practice piece, I made many wiggles and hops that I was unhappy with. However, for the most part, I left them as they are. My strong dislike for the seam ripper makes it easier for me to ignore the less than perfect stitching. I don’t need to make it perfect. I just need to keep stitching. If I spend lots of time ripping things out, the joy is lost; given up to the pursuit of perfection when really, good is enough for me.

As expected (and hoped for) I learned quite a bit with this piece. First of all, in a Craftsy class, Machine Quilting Wholecloth Quilts with Cindy Needham, she suggests folding your practice piece in half and ironing a line and then folding one more time (so you have 4 quarters) and ironing again. You end up with the center marked well and four gridlines to guide you. The lines are still slightly visible on this piece. Following that I worked on the flower in the center. The tutorial for this motif was taken from Lori Kenedy’s site, The Inbox Jaunt. The name of the motif is Claire’s Peony. This flower is really fun to do.

I bordered the flower with a simple twist. Here comes lesson number two. I found out that I had no idea how to deal with the corners. This design doesn’t really lend itself to turning a corner. I tried, oh, I did try! With this one, I used my seam ripper and tried a few times to find a way. After a couple of tries, I just went end to end and gave up on the turn. It isn’t award winning but then, this isn’t going to a show, it’s practice. So I am fine with it.

The outer border is inspired by another of Lori’s tutorials, The Maypop Leaf. I doodled this one for a while on paper (actually I draw anything first, before stitching) but it is still a bit rough. Again, practice, right? I felt like it needed one last bit so I echoed the leaf border a couple of times.

I was going to toss this into a pile of odds and ends but after looking at it for a while, I decided to keep it. I like the way it looks as a whole so I put a quick binding on it and kept it. It finishes out at 15″ x 15 1/2″ (I know – where did that extra 1/2″ come from???) Keeping these is a good thing – as I progress, it is nice to look back and see how far I have come. You know, the hardest part of writing this post is to keep the critcism of this practice session to a minimum. I feel like if I am going to share these projects, I need to zoom in and explain or defend every mistake. But I am not going to. It isn’t perfect but it is certainly good enough.

Linking to Freemotion Mavericks and other assorted wonderful linky parties. Info on all of them are listed at the top of the page, under link ups.